Eyes of The Spider
by Blue9TigerDarkMutatedBrock
Summary: Exactly what made Hojo go off the edge? They have eight legs and many girls fear them. Vincent fans: read and weep.


Legal Stuff: Professor Hojo, Vincent, and all characters of FFVII are  
copyright to Squaresoft, etc. etc. This is ameteur and nonprofit, so  
no copyright infringements are intended. The defnition of arachnid is excerpted from  
AOL:Keyword:Dictionary. That definition isn't mine.  
I'm back!! And this time I have a friend to thank! (Erin, PLEASE don't rip my  
head off and stuff it with cheese!) I credit her with coming up with this warped, twisted, and  
WONDERFUL idea. So, the idea is hers! Phew. Anyway.....  
This is a what-if fic that ties into the much, much, MUCH later parts  
of the fic we're writing together: "End of A Reality". Righhht. I'll   
shut up now.   
One more thing: this deals with the concept of Hojo and Vincent being  
brothers. Heh-heh. Still want to read?  
started: 2/18/02 finished: 2/18/02  
Rated: PG for mild swearing and violence.  
  
Eyes of the Spider  
  
by Blue9Tiger and DarkMutatedBrock  
  
Pervasive darkness flooded every corner of the Valentine residence.   
Its inhabitants had gone to bed, being the diurnal humans they were, the last being the youngest, who  
had finished digesting his Chemistry textbook and had gone to sleep.  
There was no doubt that everything was quiet.  
All except for the spiders.  
  
The eight-legged animals came in droves, swarms, plethoras of brown, black, gray, and   
mixed, of all varieties, some plump and fuzzy, others barely   
noticeable as they scurried across the pillow.They sieged the boy   
who was sleeping soundly, attacking him from all sides, hanging on to  
his long ebony hair, invading his ears, his eyes, and going so far as to crawl into his NOSE,  
hanging from his nostrils, getting STUCK in the CILIA...and he desperately tried to take them  
out, but squashed them, their EYES dribbling down his mouth.  
Spiders....EVERYWHERE......there was no where to hide...  
everywhere he turned, they cornered him.  
  
Terrified, the boy started to scream. The spiders took advantage of   
this and filtered into his throat. He reached a spider-infested hand into his mouth   
to somehow get them OUT of his mouth, only succeeding to squash them, and their   
innards careened down his throat, choking him, and they kept   
coming..and coming..AND COMING.....endless amounts of the newly-hatched  
arachnids, these crawling nightmares..no way to flee...they blocked his  
every step.....why?? Why to HIM? And more importantly, WHO??  
  
Lurking in the shadows was another boy. This was pleasure to him.   
He enjoyed his brother's pain. Why? Because it was ENTERTAINING. It was  
FUN. He was the handsome, good-looking type, that net him countless friends of  
the opposite sex. To torment his brother, who had nothing but his trusty  
books of knowledge, which the elder ridiculed because he was unable to  
grasp the boundless knowledge that the other craved so much.  
  
It was only when he heard the furious tread of his father that he lured the  
remaining spiders into a jar, and conveniently stuffed it into his pocket, leaving  
the boy in the bed vexed. The boy's parent glared down at the frightened  
child, whose black eyes were wide with terror.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?!?!"  
  
"..The SPIDERS...they were all around me!"  
  
"You lying good-for-nothing!! There's nothing here!!!"  
  
The boy was trembling with fear: the last spider was caught in his throat,  
wriggling and brushing against the thin walls. It finally was forced  
down, and was digested in the churning acid, that was chewing  
a hole through his stomach. It looked like his story wouldn't be bought.  
  
"B-but..they WERE here, father! I SAW them!"  
  
He didn't believe it. How COULD he believe it? There was nothing there.  
Nothing there but a silly boy who didn't know how to keep his bad dreams to himself.  
As the impending sentence of grounding for a week fell upon his head, the boy could  
see something out of the corner of his eye: a dark-hearted demon that  
had gotten away with murder.  
  
A desolate week later, the boy, whom we will address as Edward,   
was pouring himself a glass of water. Still armed with his textbook,  
he sat down at the pine table and placed the glass on the   
table. He left to grab a cube of ice from the icebox, and he dropped  
the cube into the water. But to his horror...the small...gray...  
ANIMAL in his water...AGAIN...the SPIDER.....in stark terror, he threw  
the glass upward, and it shattered onto the floor, spilling the water  
onto the tiles.  
  
"Oh, no..."  
  
"Young man, what do you think you're doing?!"  
  
"I was drinking..and..and..IT came...."  
  
"Clean up this mess NOW!"  
  
"But--!"  
  
"NOW."  
  
His dark eyes widened in fear, and he quickly obtained a mop and   
a dustpan, wiping the mess clean and picking up the shards, cutting   
himself in the process. As he bled, he could hear the sadistic laughter  
of.....Vincent.  
  
Some time later, the boy was at his typewriter, feverishly copying  
down the names of phylums. The spiders plagued the back of his mind,  
but at the forefront was some tranquility.  
  
"Arthropod: any of a phylum of invertebrate animals (as insects,   
arachnids------"  
  
Crawl.  
  
"---and crustaceans) that have a segmented body--"  
  
Crawl.  
  
"And jointed appendages--!"  
  
Crawl. Crawl. Crawl.   
  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Again, the spider was whisked away, and the unfortunate youth met  
the cold, hateful glares of both his parents. A merciless tongue-lashing   
followed, and Vincent was content to lurk in the shadows and smile  
in malicious glee and immense satisfaction. Even if he COULDN'T retrieve  
the spider, his parents wouldn't mind. After all, he was the eldest,  
and the favorite. Why SHOULDN"T he be allowed to get away with   
everything? He was born first, so he was entitled to this. His brother  
was entitled to be the loathed scapegoat. Yes, life was bliss.  
  
A day later, the youngest was surrounded by his science books,   
underlining and circling important facts. He happened to have a   
box of pens, but there was one that was his favorite. By chance, the  
pen exploded.   
  
He got up to go clean it, leaving the tube with ink lying on the  
floor...vulnerable and helpless. The older boy came, stuffing the spider into the  
tube, and darted back into concealment before his brother could catch  
him in the act. He picked up the tube and was about to replace it in the  
pen, when IT came. It was the largest yet, and it clung to the edge of  
the ink holder. He screamed in terror, and dropped the ink onto himself,  
spilling on his white shirt.   
  
"WHAT DID YOU DO NOW?!?!"  
  
The boy could only fidget as he explained the incident, but  
again, they didn't believe him. But this time, the SPIDER WAS IN PLAIN  
SIGHT. The loathsome little creature was on the floor, drenched with   
black ink, but his parents still lectured. Raging anger built in his dark eyes, that displaced the fear.   
He now KNEW why they didn't believe him. It was because of VINCENT.  
ALL BECAUSE OF VINCENT.   
  
And it continued. For years, spiders, spiders, and more spiders.  
Everywhere there was a spider. His LIFE was spiders. At night, there  
were no dreams, but only nightmares, because of spiders. At all hours,  
at all minutes, at all SECONDS...spiders. Their eyes...the eyes..  
watching him...every movement...on and on and on and ON.  
  
The madness wasn't limited to spiders. But in every catastrophe, the  
same spider, a human spider, was behind it. That spider would weave  
his web of chaos until the poor fly was trapped, and he fed upon his  
anguish with delight.   
  
The white mouse was no exception.  
  
He had brought the tiny creature home, in an old cage that had been  
an old tarantula's. The animal was albino, and it interested the boy,  
because of its whiteness. He watched it every day, carefully monitoring  
its health. It was possibly his first love: there was not a moment  
that passed that he did not have the rodent near him. He took it to  
school, to bed, to the bathroom, to the kitchen table....until one day,  
he had spilled water on issue 1002 of Vincent's comic books. He KNEW  
punishment was inevitable after that, and was begging his brother to  
spare him, but that was not to be.  
  
He found it burnt to death under a lightbulb, and its remains being   
consumed by..a..SPIDER.  
  
"No!!!" he was defiant as he wrestled the dead mouse away from the  
spider, and he hurried to find a knife in the kitchen, some batteries,  
wire, and rummaged through his books to find one on anatomy. Breathless,  
he headed to the garage. His brother approached him.  
  
"What're you doing, Eddie?" Vincent sneered.  
  
"You..KILLED it, but it won't stay dead. I'm going to do the impossible!"  
He set the mouse in place and grabbed the knife, his bangs falling over his  
eyes as he worked. "I'm going to bring it back to life!!"  
  
Vincent got out of the way as the shadows of his parents loomed over   
the mouse and the other boy. Their expressions were on fire with   
rage. How could their son even THINK of bringing a mouse into the   
house and use it for experimentation? There was no time for explanations,  
and no desire to hear them. Vincent winced as he heard the sound impact  
of a belt buckle on the weak flesh of his brother. Once...twice...  
.....It continued until swelling bruises formed, and blood flowed down  
his face. And even then it didn't stop. He continued until his son's   
glasses were smashed, and it cut into his flesh, sinking into the veins.  
And even THEN..there was no relenting in the brutality.  
  
The years passed. Both boys turned into young men: the first, a lecherous  
womanizer that slacked on his studies and haunted taverns and bars,  
surrounded by his women, who adored his charm, his stunning good looks,  
and his romantic air. The second, without a female companion, alarmingly  
studious, practically living in the school, and like his father,   
completely unrelenting.   
  
Then came college. Vincent avoided it entirely: he immediately joined  
the Turks. The salary was good, and the gruesome nature of the job was  
up his alley. On the other hand, his brother had to scrape enough gil  
for the long years of schooling ahead. His parents loathed him: he would get no backing from them.  
That wasn't the worst of it, however. The spiders did not leave him   
alone.  
  
There was only one light on in the dorm, and Edward was busily   
reading a book. His eyebrows were knotted in thought as he perused  
each page, when his roomate opened the door. He blinked, surprised to  
see that anyone was still studying at this hour, and he looked at the  
black-haired man curiously.  
  
"Whatcha reading?"  
  
"The effects of Mako infusion on somatic cells."  
  
"Ya know, Valentine, you're such a nerd. Why don'tcha come to the party   
down at Wall Market? I hear there's some pretty hot chicks there. Maybe  
you could get yourself a girl," he pointed out, snatching the book   
away from him. "Unless, 'course, you're too weak."  
  
"I have more important things to do."  
  
"Too bad, you're goin', anyway!"  
  
The young man had little choice, as his roommate gripped the other's  
frail wrist, and yanked him out of the chair, practically dragging   
him out the door, through the hallway, down the stairs, onto the street, lit by the   
streetlamps, spiders getting caught in their burning flame.  
And who should he meet but his brother, garbed in the dark blue of the Turks.   
Hojo's face darkened into a bitter scowl. Time had passed, and through  
rigorous self-teaching, he was able to talk back.  
  
"Are..you attending this..social gathering as well?"  
  
"For someone who's still going to school, you're pretty stupid. What does it LOOK like I'm doing?" the Turk asked in an  
obnoxious manner.   
  
"Making a fool of yourself, parading with that gun in your hand, as if you owned Midgar!" Edward retaliated, half-expecting  
a spider to land on his head in vengeance. Vincent smirked, and reached for something in his pocket.   
It was almost as big as his palm.  
  
"Eddie, you're actually RIGHT! But i'm no fool..."  
  
In the blink of an eye, Vincent had flicked a spider onto his brother's   
face, and watched in pleasure as he squirmed, trying in futility to   
scrape the damned thing off, while spectators rolled on the street, laughing cruelly. "..You are!"  
  
More years came and went, leaving with it the woven thread of innumerable  
spiders, and their furry bodies crawling through his mind, always there..  
Everywhere. They were an ocean that through the passing years, Edward drowned  
in time and again. He was unable to escape them. And he still had done  
nothing to deserve them.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
A cold, miserable rain drizzled from the icy clouds that were   
suspended overhead the placid town of Kalm. The Valentine family were gathered around a   
mahogany coffin, decorated with the few flowers that were able to be  
picked from elsewhere. A disgruntled Vincent came trudging up to his  
father, his short, rather well-groomed hair plastering over his face. His demeanor was no  
longer jovial, because of who was in that coffin.  
  
"Vincent...what did the wretch say?"  
  
"He said it would be senseless to come when she meant absolutely nothing   
to him."  
  
His eyes hardened. That was the final insult. His youngest son was  
troublesome enough. He had disgraced the Valentine name with his abnormal  
physical weakness, love of learning, and now...not even coming to his  
mother's FUNERAL.  
  
"I..can't..BELIEVE.."  
  
A long silence spanned the space of two minutes. Somewhere, a low   
rumble of thunder signalled an oncoming storm.   
"Tell him that he's no longer welcome in the Valentine house."  
  
"Yes, Father."  
  
After that, Edward Valentine was never heard from again. He cut all  
ties to the family and became known only as Hojo, even to his wife.   
Lucrecia did not bother to inquire further, as she was also a   
scientist working for Professor Gast, and knew that some things were  
best left alone. But though having changed his identity, and assuming  
an air of indifference to everyone he met, the spiders were there...and  
they lived on.  
  
Vincent returned to bring about another spider, but it began to  
take on a completely different form. It was the venemous spider of lust.  
The physically appealing Turk wanted Lucrecia, for her beauty, her purity,  
and her nearly flawless nature. And he succeeded. In secret, he succeeded.  
  
But this time he wouldn't get away with it.  
  
Not long after, the Northern Crater yielded a monstrosity. Its name  
was Jenova, and it was brought in for experimentation. This started  
The Jenova Project, and its product was to be Hojo's son. Little did  
he know that Vincent got to her first....  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The sky above the Midgar Plate was filled with a swelling mist, greying  
the horizon with the colors of certain spiders. Amidst the greyness stood  
the Shin-Ra Headquarters. Inside, sixty-seven floors up, two scientists were  
standing over a third one, examining a baby, whose eyes were glowing with  
Mako. The third one was limp: her eyes were shut with the weight of  
weakness upon it. The first two were concentrated on the child, and Professor  
Gast walked into the lab, looking very elated.  
  
"The infant is healthy and everything appears to be normal!"  
  
Hojo frowned. Gast usually told the results of the DNA testing before  
anything else.This perturbed him greatly. Something MUST have been   
wrong.....  
  
"Yes, but what about the DNA, Professor Gast?"  
  
The other's face darkened, and Gast became quiet. "I don't know how to tell you this, Hojo,  
but....."  
  
Hojo's face fell in disappointment, and immediately after his dark eyes narrowed,  
and his pale visage, usually preoccupied and indifferent became a mask of uncontrollable fury as he hissed  
one name with invariable contempt.  
  
"VINCENT."  
----------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The Nibelheim air was frigid, still as death. Vincent approached  
the town with litle apprehension. After all, it was simply routine. The sky, somehow was strangely   
foreboding, but he shrugged it off and entered the town. Its quaint   
houses were shadowed by the heavy darkness, and the most imposing   
structure of all, the Shin-Ra Mansion, stood looming against the   
blazing jet horizon.  
  
The Turk entered the enormous dwelling, climbing the stairs in order  
to reach the room with the concealed staircase. On the wall, a few   
spiders crawled, disappearing under cracks in the floor. Vincent   
descended the spiralling staircase down to the rarely visited basement,  
and strode down the eerie, portentous corridor. There were a few small spiders here  
as well, and the occasional bat. At the end of the corridor was the door,  
and he turned the knob, walking in. Hojo was glued to one of the tubes  
one of his specimens was in, and was fixated on the glowing liquid and the   
creature that was immersed in it. Vincent had to clear his throat   
before the other noticed his presence. But when he did, his demeanor  
changed, his black eyebrows slanted, and he straightened as he observed  
the Turk.  
  
"You asked to see me."  
  
Hojo nodded, pushing his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. It  
still pained him, where the buckle had hit, but he never let onto it.  
Like many things, he kept it a secret. But he had no qualms in bringing  
other's secrets to the light. To find skeletons in the closet and lead  
them out where their eyeless skulls could be bared.  
  
"Yes, regarding that...passionate night you had with Lucrecia."  
  
Vincent was shocked at his brother's directness, and was a bit   
disconcerted. There was no shivering, no sign of weakness: this was  
not the sickly boy he had once known. Hojo seemed to sense this discomfort, and pursued it further. "The DNA doesn't  
lie, Turk. You DID sleep with her."  
  
"No, I didn't."  
  
The scientist's frustration began to mount, and he accused again,  
this time with a harsher tone:  
  
"You did. You slept with my wife and she had YOUR child, not mine."  
  
"That Jenova-bloated kid is YOURS, not mine."  
  
That mention of the alien creature seemed to do something to Hojo.  
He grabbed his head with shaking hands, in a sudden, serrating pain  
that ripped through his mind, slicing into the deep, dark recesses of  
his brain, waking something within it..something strange..something  
evil. Without warning, he reached into his labcoat, and pulled out a  
gun. Vincent was startled for a moment, shocked that his kid brother,  
the victim of the never-ending spiders, would even think that he could   
attempt to kill him, a TURK, an experienced, well-trained, seasoned TURK.  
  
As the scientist, mad with rage, and something else...gripped the  
weapon in his dexterous, although frail hands, and it seemed as if not he, but  
another was aiming it. There was an interminable glow in his dark eyes that was barely  
visible behind his glasses. A glow that was not human, but alien. But Vincent  
was calm and confident. He smirked at the quivering hand, that was unused to holding   
a firearm.  
  
"You really think you can pull that trigger, Eddie?"  
  
Something inexplainable happened. The quaking grip became controlled,  
and Hojo held it as if he had held a gun all of his life. And then, the shot rang out, like a thunderclap in the frozen, unmoving air.   
Vincent could only look down at his bloodstained shirt. It was strange...and terrifying to see his own  
blood. Glaring crimson liquid that flowed down his chest in growing rivulets,  
each and every drop of blood screamed PAYBACK. It was retribution for his past  
sins, that he only brought upon himself.  
  
I don't think so..  
I just did.  
  
Vincent held his chest, feeling the ribcage break, the lungs and heart  
beneath collapsing, and he dropped to the floor, the mortal wound leaking his blood  
on the hard surface. As the brutal moments of his life ended, his closing  
eyes beheld his brother's look of placid serenity, but his eyes,  
still controlled by that indomitable force, whatever it may have been.  
  
Unknown to either Vincent or Hojo, it would control the latter until death.  
It would not let go. It was like the spiders, that were there: omnipresent,  
in every facet of his life.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------   
  
The last words echoed in his mind.  
  
"That was for Father."  
  
"And THIS......"  
A final shot echoed in the blackness, severing the ball-and-socket  
joint from the hinge joint, leaving the bloodied arm dangling from  
the ripped shoulder, shreds of muscles hanging out from the bullet-torn  
flesh. The Turk's final breath allowed him to hear his brother's vengeful  
statement. Whether it was controlled by that unstoppable force, or the  
words of vengeance for a youth that was nothing but HELL, neither of   
them would ever forget these final words.  
  
"This is for the spiders."  
  
END  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Comments? Questions? Flames? ARghhh! Erin would've done a MUCH, MUCH  
better job on this! ;_; Speaking of Erin, I say again, please don't  
kill me! I couldn't wait! ;_; I needed to spread your wonderful   
Hojo-angelizing and Vincent-demonizing!!! Yes!! Because it's GOOD!  
Let the Vincent fans cower in fear!! A NEW AGE HAS RISEN!!!!!!!!  
Yeah. X X;; Anyway, PLEASE don't kill me!  
ARgh...! I MUST appease Erin! Lets see...  
The following WONDERFUL dialogue is the great DarkMutatedBrock's:  
"This is for the spiders.", "And this...", and "You really think you can pull that trigger, Eddie?",  
as well as the entire concept and plot!!!  
By the way. Spiders are GOOD things. If you are a spider fan, I meant  
no offense. I like spiders myself. Anyway..I'll shut up.  
'Till next time, this is B9T,(who hopes NOT to get killed by Erin) signin' off! 


End file.
